Sinatra_Z - Lessons from Taugeh

When I was a kid,
I wasn't much of a fan when it comes to vegetables, just like many other kids.
But that doesn't mean I won't eat any,
it's just that like dramas, I prefer to avoid them if I could.

Taugeh was probably the most dreaded vegetable of them all, I have memories of painstakingly removing them one by one when eating "char koey teow"(I hope I spelled that right).

Just so happen that one day,
while on this camping trip, a scout's camping trip organised by the school.
While I was happily setting up tents and gathering sticks and what not with my fellow scouting comrades, suddenly it started pouring, typical of a Malaysian thunderstorm.

My tent was flooded, everyone's tent was flooded too and everything was wet, soaking wet to be exact, from towel to underwear.

So there I was in the rain standing in line with empty plates in my hands awaiting turn for lunch.
To make things seem less miserable and more fun I pretended to be a soldier on the front line awaiting for his ration. Helps a lot.

When my turn came, they scooped in rice, fish cooked tauchu style which I quite dislike and lo and behold a steamingly hot taugheh with salted fish.

Though reluctant at first,
I decided to dig in anyway since I was hungry as hell and part of being a front line soldier is to dig in bad rations (I was still pretending you see).

In minutes,
all of it was gone, a squeaking clean plate, every little bit of taugeh was taken. That was the best rice/meal I have ever had in my entire 14 years life span. Unimpressive as it may sound do bear in mind that this taugheh meal beats McDonalds, in which for a 14 year old McDonalds is like Kobe Beef.

I learned several things from that experience.

1. Only in certain conditions can you appreciate certain things.

2. Often things, experiences, gifts or items are wasted on those who either lack wisdom or simply have no time to actually stop and think about it.

3. There's no point in serving the best meal in the world to a person who is full.

4. There is no point in giving something precious to a person who doesn't know or simply refuse to appreciate it.

5. Imagination helps in improving your surroundings.

6. A meal, is not judged by what ingredients it is made of, instead it is judged by the effect it brings to the person who is eating it. For that plain rice may tasted brilliantly delicious to me, yet at the same time a slightly overcooked steak was distastefully despised by someone in a fancy restaurant somewhere.

Something to think about during your next meal.

Good Night Folks